How Far Tomorrow

Judith Austin Mills Moved to Texas from up north when she was ten. The absence of distinct seasons and the spare, sprawling landscape in her adopted state may have been what taught her to look closely for signs of change. Her writing, both fiction and poetry, portrays awakenings. Since 2010, the complex shifts brought on by the Texas Revolution have fascinated her. In 1989 at the University of Texas, the author earned her M.A.in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Stories from her collection, Lost Autumn Blues, have appeared in literary journals. One piece from her poetry book Accidental Joy received a Pushcart nomination in 2015. The novel manuscript Tripping Home won the Writers' League of Texas mainstream competition in 2001.
Since retiring from the French classroom and from Austin Community College as an Adjunct, Associate Professor of English, Judith Austin Mills devotes her time to writing and to family. She is more and more convinced that hopeful change springs from a careful look at history.
Websites: judithaustinmills.wordpress.com and jaustinmills.info

As the fight for Texas Independence heats up in the fall of 1835, young volunteers as far away as Macon, Georgia enlist to test their mettle in the brewing struggle. Three women traveling alongside the battalion have hidden reasons for abandoning home. They have never heard of the remote settlement Waterloo-destined to be renamed Austin. None starting out on the 1,000 mile trek envision a treacherous passage into unrelenting frontier. No one foresees any morning as cruel as the next Palm Sunday in Goliad, Texas.

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You, like me, will love the latest novel of the Texas Revolution. Sparked by the memory of an ancestor who joined the fight for Texas independence, Judith Austin Mills weaves the true story of the ill-fated Georgia Battalion with that of a family of women crossing the same borders. Historical characters and the author's meticulous research add depth and realism to the narrative. Read this book to lose yourself in the dangerous, violent, yet ultimately hopeful world of frontier Texas, a world that, for better or worse, gave birth to our own.

-Jeffrey Kerr, author, Austin, Texas: Then and Now and The Republic of Austin



I'm struck with the clarity of the author's vision. I look forward to more from this gifted writer.

-Sharon Kahn, author, Ruby, the Rabbi's Wife series; co-author Brave Black Women



The fine novel How Far Tomorrow follows one proud group of men who leave Georgia to join the fight in Texas as war with Mexico erupts in 1835. Traveling with these men on their long journey are the Harper women, who create within the vortex of war, dislocation, and tragedy, a "tomorrow" that is worthy of sacrifice and love.

-John Willingham, historian and novelist, The Edge of Freedom



Texas history came alive to me in this remarkable story of love and sacrifice.

-Nancy Bell, author, Biggie series and Judge Jackson Crain series



This is a moving story, held together by the courage of the three women, and the family ties between the men from Macon. And in conjunction with the rhetoric of "freedom," Judith Austin Mills has shown the bitter underside of what happens when people have no idea what they are getting into, and are badly led from every direction. Yarico is a wonderful character. As is Adeline.

-Susan Bright, poet and publisher, author of 17 books